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Brief Synopsis

A newspaperman sets out to catch a sea-going thief.

Reporter Jim Moore and his photographer, Tripod Daniels, are on assignment on board a ship where Jim falls in love with pretty passenger Sandy Vantine, who is traveling with her uncle Paul. Paul has purchased a Buhl chest that he believes is a copy made by a master forger known as the Black Parrot. The presence of Scotland Yard detective Colonel Piggott on board convinces Paul that the Black Parrot has left the country. Jim is in search of a good story, so Paul offers to show him the signature black parrot that the forger worked into the design of the chest. Paul discovers, however, that the chest is really an expensive original. Just then, an alarm goes off indicating that the ship has been hit by a torpedo. It is a false alarm, but by the time Jim and the Vantines return to Paul's cabin, the cabinet has obviously been searched. Back in town, Jim visits the Vantines to ask Paul for Sandy's hand in marriage. At the same time, Paul is visited by Max Armand, the son of the man who sold him his chest, and by a man calling himself Theophile Daurelle. When Daurelle is found dead next to the chest, Sandy calls in the police. While Inspector Grady questions everyone, a woman named Julia insists on speaking to Paul, who later is also found dead. After Jim discovers that one of Daurelle's aliases matches a name on the ship's passenger list, Grady decides to ask Piggott for help. A little later, Madame de Charriere arrives and asks to see Paul. When she learns that he is dead, she relates that inside the Buhl chest, which belongs to her family, are hidden letters that could prove compromising in her divorce proceedings. She then demonstrates a secret switch that opens a concealed compartment and retrieves her letters. Julia, who is Madame de Charriere's maid, reappears and explains that she had tried to get the letters before Daurelle, to whom she had told the story, could use them in a blackmailing scheme. Jim discovers that the burglar alarm wires have been cut and Tripod finds a single cufflink on the floor. While they discuss these discoveries, Piggott sneaks in, proving how easily someone could have entered from the outside. Piggott tells them that he has been following the Black Parrot because a set of valuable diamonds are also hidden in the chest. He finds a second secret compartment and disarms the protective mechanism that was responsible for the deaths of Paul and Daurelle. Before he can take them away, however, Sandy sees that Piggott is missing a cufflink and realizes that he is really the Black Parrot in disguise. She signals Jim and he overpowers Piggott and removes his disguise.